Mortuus Tractus
by The Blearing Phoenix
Summary: A renown bounty hunter. A plain engineer. One doomed hellish starship . . . and the indomitable will to survive. Will Samus and Isaac survive the travesties and threatening monstrosities that lurk throughout the USG Ishimura? Or will hell overtake them?
1. Transport

Summary: One shot. Samus of METROID series fame plus Dead Space's Isaac Clarke. Necromorphs and two bad ass space heroes (one's a lowly engineer and the other is a formidable bounty hunter). 'Cause it hasn't been done yet.

Mortuus Tractus

-0.1 Transport-

Samus Aran, feared bounty hunter, former member of Zebes society, and former member of the Galactic Federation Police was completely daunted by where she was. It wasn't the fact that she was still very much in Space that bothered her so much as it was the fact that the ship she was currently crouching on was completely unrecognizable to her. Overhead there were lights flickering about and the occasional hum of cool air whistling through the vent system. Air circulation. Air flow. But other than that . . . there was nothing. She had no idea where she was and her Scanner was offline, dead, completely static. She could hear the stutter of white noise before she used her arm cannon to lightly tap the machinery on her forearm.

Gritting her teeth, Samus stood up and surveyed the rest of the ship, moving in a deliberate slowness in case she ran into anything . . . strange. And strange things she did invariably run into, as she maneuvered around the claustrophobic tight halls, the floor awash with the dimmed glow of sulphurous lighting.

"Christ, I need to get this scanner to work, come on, come on," she gnawed on her lower lip and bit back a growl of frustration. She couldn't even accurately recall just _how _she had been unceremoniously dropped unto the desecration of this ship. Her mind was fuzzy, flashing with images blurred and hazed in bright white. At one point she was piloting her gunship smoothly through the deep bowels of space, on her way to complete a necessary mission involving some particularly nasty space pirates, and now . . .

"I'm here," her voice was tinged with the lacing of something mechnical, a result of speaking through her visored helmet. Just then an inhuman roar echoed off of the walls as Samus came aross a large metal door. It was far too heavy for her to even consider lifting, even if her body was enhanced with the far more advanced blood of the Chozo race, there were still very human limitations she faced. The door weighed a little more than a tonne, no thanks. Glancing around worriedly as the roaring of something possibly undead, an abomination of man, judging by the throaty gurgle this creature emitted became more audible; Samus started to panic. She placed her hand on the crown of her helmet and breathed through the tube supplying fresh oxygen into her lips, inhaling the streamed current of air almost greedily.

"Alright," she almost screamed in joy as her scanner suddenly buzzed back to life just as the scuttling, scraping sound of some . . . _legged _thing rounded the corner behind her. She could hear the spittle spraying from its blown off lower bloodied jaw before it even lunged at her, readying its bladed limbs to rend into her flesh.

"Son of a Metroid Queen, what the _hell _is that?" She charged up her power beam quickly, barely blinking as the blinding light of radiant photon-loaded energy loaded up. A tingling sensation shot through her arm as the energy jettisoned out, blasting the creature's arms before it had a chance to rip her head off. Samus backed up against the door, the collision resulting in it hissing open with a mechanical hum, before she fired up another power beam and shot it out at the other arm of the disparaged creature.

Blood splattered against her visor and the creature dropped to the floor once she effectively decapitated it. Luck had been on her side because within that small window of time her scanner had been able to assess the enemy's weakness and ultimately identify the freak of nature. That scanner, like it had done so many times before, had saved her ass.

She glanced at the entry and grimaced at the results: "_Slasher: a basic Necromorph variant with bladed limbs and a distended torso with protruding organs. Can move quite rapidly if agitated. Limb dismemberment, starting with the arms and then the legs effectively destroys the creature. Do not fire at the torso._"

"What is a necromor-?"

"Watch out!" A voice rang out and a glimmering electric blue light illuminated Samus' power suit in a bright neon glow. The woman curled herself into a ball and braced herself for impact as she sprang off, using her momentum, to somersault through the air, landing at the opposite wall. Having taken the time to walk through the doorway, Samus had just walked into another odd creature, this one seemingly able to detach its limbs at will. It was a slimy crawling thing, the limbs looking to be composed of bloodied tree resin and gnarled, twisted ligaments. But that "resin" was just tissue, muscle, and bone. A shudder tingled along Samus's spine and she felt the need to remove her helmet because the heat of it was killing her.

"What is that thing!"

"Leaper," the suited man in question huffed back to her, sidestepping as the legless thing screeched at him, swiping at his legs with its bladed "tail," if the appendage could be called that. He grunted, his luminous blue tinted visor casting the small barely lit compartment in a bright electric blue hue, as he took out a strange weapon. Loading some rounds into it he took aim and the crosshairs, a bright blue as well, locked on the adversary's arm, and rotated to a vertical 90 degree angle. The unnamed man of about 6 feet or so fired a bullet, shattering the bone and muscle of the creature's twisted sinewy appendage. It roared and attempted to come dangerously close to his head, clicking its incisor-lined maw, before Samus recharged her arm cannon and fired.

The air smelled of smoke and heated electrical particles, making the air tingle and sizzle in the aftermath of the encounter. Innards splattered the wall as the creature made its last strangled gurgled cry and expired.

"Ugh," Samus moved over to the man, grateful for his assistance. But still . . . he could be a pirate or another bounty hunter . . . maybe he was out to kill her. Maybe everything on this ship was cursed and masked in a facade of friendliness. Maybe . . .

"Who are you?" The man (she assumed he was one judging by the deepness of his baritone) inquired, checking his gun. The holographic image of his remaining ammunition flickered a bright blue: 7. He had 7 rounds left. He didn't wait for a response, crouching to pick up what Samus assumed was loot the creature had been lugging around. He snatched up some more ammunition and reloaded his weapon with three clips, flicking a switch on it, and nodding in satisfaction.

"Well . . .," and then his unsettling impatience was lacing his voice and Samus had no choice but to answer him. He was the only humanoid thing on this ship so far that didn't want to kill her, to maim her to bits, and suck out her lifeblood as part of a three course meal.

"Samus Aran of the planet Zebes, I'm a bounty hunter and a former member of the Federation Police. Now you," she huffed, sliding down against the opposite wall. There was the glorious cacophony of the damned: chirrups, chirping, clicking, scuttling, scurrying, clawed feet (or what were assumed to be such), and the smell of fetid flesh and congealed blood.

"Isaac Clarke, systems engineer for the CEC," he chuckled almost bitterly at Samus' tilt of the head and defined the acronym for his area of employment, ". . . it stands for the Concordance Extraction Corporation. You're not from Earth . . . are you?"

"I was . . .," Samus slid her left foot out, letting the metal plating of her heavily armoured space boots slide soundlessly against the metal grid of the flooring.

"And . . .?"

"It was destroyed . . . by space pirates. I was ta-"

"Shit! Fire up that thing! NOW!"

A roar interruped their peaceful chattering time and a holographic image projected out of Isaac's suit, seemingly out of no where. Samus couldn't and didn't want to waste time trying to catch a glimpse of it. Readying her gun she furrowed her ashen blonde brows, blinking a bead of perspiration away as the voice of a trembling distraught man broke out from the image. A transmission, Samus noted and relaxed visibly, tensing her legs, to back up against the wall opposite of Isaac as they walked towards the screaming source of anger.

"_Isaac, you gotta cut their limbs off, Smith just killed on of 'em. Use a cutter or anything like that, you gotta chop their limbs off, cut 'em off!_"

Isaac was breathless, almost winded as another Slasher headed toward him. It gurgled and screeched menacingly, brandishing its bladed limbs, the swiping on which narrowly avoided Isaac's head as Samus aimed for one of its arms. Isaac cut off another limb with the bladed edge of his plasma cutter and stomped on its head with the metal plating of his boot, grunting withthe exerted effort. Samus recoiled in horror as the blood splashed against his leg like thick paint. He collected what he told her was a power node, a glimmering orb of pure electrical power, and told her that they weren't alone.

"What do you mean?"

"I have other companions . . . people . . . people that are trying to get off this fucking godforsaken place."

"And where exactly are we? My scanner can't identify the name of this vessel at all," Samus was terrified. If this ship was just teeming with more of these strange undead deadly things then she wasn't sure WHAT she was going to do. She only had so much resources, so much energy to expend . . . only so much . . .

"The USG Ishimura . . . a planet-cracking starship, first of its kind. And yes, there are tons more of those necropmorph creatures . . . a lot more. We've got to keep moving, Samus," and that was that.

-Author's Notes-

I tried to make it all tense and "oh my GOD!" but still badass by coupling the two together, I know they seem rushed and all OOC, but trust me, if I do make this oneshot into a multi-chaptered fic then like they'll shit their pants more . . . their galactic space pants. Ohoho. But yeah I'll make it scarier and tense-r just tell me if you want me to continue with this or leave it as is, a oneshot. I hope you all enjoyed reading it. ^_^

- TBP


	2. OXYGEN

Mortuus Tractus

-0.2 Oxygen-

Isaac had lost everything within the window of a few hours. Everything around him had fallen apart into a chaotic mess of shattered glass, splintered bone fragments, torn ligaments, ripped tendons, and coagulated blood. It was a sickening poetry of violence and the necromorphs had metaphorically written blood into metal, shrapnel, glass, tiling, metal grates, and panels. He half wondered if he'd already left a scattered and scarred semblance of his mind in tatters somewhere in the vastness of the ship.

He briefly recalled how Nicole had touched his arm tenderly before he'd been sent off onto the USG Ishimura, before he'd been dispatched to this infested ship. Nicole . . . her voice . . . her warmth . . . the feel of her skin, goose flesh and all, those were just vestiges slipping away in his subconsciousness. H e could barely hold unto two year old memories of her.

Now the corridors reeked of the dead, the metal grates and metal paneling were bathed in blood. There was the tinge of metallic iron, coppery and stagnant that he could feel just as easily as he could smell. Placing his helmet back on his head he watched as a traumatized Samus recharged her arm cannon. The air smelled like photons and neurons like pure molecular energy—burnt and electrical.

"Resting is for the weak, we've got to get a move on." He breathed out to her through the metal helmet he wore, his voice was laced with a metallic ting that he heard echo back to him when it bounced off the metal panels. His voice sounded weak, tired . . . deflated . . . he sounded defeated, like a boxer that had pummeled his fists into one too many opponents.

"Look, I just want to get back to Zebes so I can complete my damn mission," Samus bit out hoarsely, checking her ammunition. Once she was satisfied with her amount she loaded up her arm cannon and stepped gingerly over the freshly slain undead corpses. Necromorphs . . . demonic, reanimated, bloodthirsty, savage, and one-track minded beings . . . infesting this planet-cracking ship, infesting the bodies of crew members . . . taking over every sector and crevice. It was nightmarish to think about what she had gotten herself knee-deep into. Isaac almost felt bad for her even if he didn't _really_ know who the hell she was.

A hoarse gurgle cut off the sound of their clipped footsteps. Stopping mid step Isaac glanced down the corridor, lightly stepping over blood stains and dismembered limbs . . . a bloody hand here . . . a gathering of pinkish entrails there. Keeping the bile from rising up the column of his throat he aimed his plasma cutter at the Slasher currently making a meal out of one of the computer engineers of the ship.

"Dear God," Samus whispered faintly, placing a metal plated hand on the cool fabric of Isaac's basic entry-level engineer suit. The plasma cutter sent out a bright blue ray that melted through skin, muscular tissue, and bone, effectively severing the Slasher's right arm and left leg. Its bladed arms narrowly missed Isaac as he managed to press himself back against the wall, intentionally knocking Samus back into a sitting position. He'd saved this crazy ass chick's life . . . she owed him one after this.

Stomping on the deformed face of his undead adversary, Isaac flicked a piece of muscle and spit out some blood out of the side of his mouth after temporarily taking off his helmet. A crackling of static managed to sound out over his comlink equipment. A blue screen flickered to life and the face of Zach Hammond smiled bitterly back at him.

"Good to see you still alive, Zach," Isaac grunted breathlessly. He'd physically exerted himself feeling the soreness settle within each bone and muscle as he struggled to slide down a wall opposite of Samus.

"Likewise Clarke, listen Kendra found a tram system that we could hopefully board to get us out of here. It's our only means of transportation however it needs to be fixed up some." And thus Zach launched into a brief summary of what needed to be recovered in order to ensure that the tram system would be back in working order. Squinting his eyes until he could see Samus, Zach glanced furtively at Isaac, and rubbed his chin pensively.

"And who is she?"

"Introduce yourself, please."

"Not before you tell me who this person is," Samus bit back, already sickened by the staleness of the air and the stench of rotting flesh.

Isaac narrowed his eyes at her, biting his tongue before he gave her a verbal lashing. Although he wasn't much for talking, the experienced engineer ran into issues with people who proved to be disrespectful. Samus didn't seem like the sort of woman that liked to do what she was told or act politely to her subordinates. "Someone who can hel-"

"I'm Zachary Hammond, the commander of the USG Ishimura and this-" Zach gestured to a young dark-haired woman with brown eyes that spoke of her high intellect, " . . . is Kendra Daniels, our Computer Specialist." Kendra waved and smiled at Samus who tried her best to smile through her helmet, hoping her relief that their was another woman on this hell-bound ship could show through.

"So it's just you three?" Samus huffed out disbelievingly. She was alone with three scared, anguished, desperate people on this filthy ship? She was alone with no means of contact, no means of reaching the planet Zebes? Absolutely none. She couldn't remain _this_ staunchly resolute when the odds were stacked against her. No one here had probably ever heard of Zebes let alone would know how to set in the proper coordinates to get there and then again . . . it seemed like the technological innovations here alluded to the fact that she could be in a completely different time period altogether. Time travel . . . how the hell would that be possible?

"Yes, unfortunately. Where are you from and what's your name?" Kendra asked, although her voice sounded stronger than her two male companions, she looked just as haggard as them.

"Samus Aran, I hail from the Planet Zebes. I'm a bounty hunter." Samus bit her lower lip, watching the girl melt into the dimly lit control room that she had taken refuge in with her superior. Zach stepped back into the light, his brown eyes glimmering into a warm golden brown in the intensity of the fluorescent lighting overhead. Oddly enough, Samus found him to be comforting in his tenacity and strength, it was clear who was calling the shots here. And . . ., Samus caught a quick glimpse of her newly loyal companion, it was clear who was the resident lackey.

". . . Take Samus with you, we might be able to figure out a way to get her back . . . although I doubt it. I can't recall having ever heard of a planet called Zebes in any of our planetary systems. We'll focus on that when the tram system is back on line, there's still a lot of engineering repairs to be done to this ship."

"Me neither . . . but . . . anyway . . will do. We'll get that tram up and running and we'll keep you posted." Isaac smiled genuinely, truly, it was full of warmth, but it was the briefest of flickers before he became all business. He settled back into the grimness, the dismal outlook of the reality that lay before them. If they weren't careful then death was surely imminent. Isaac signaled to Samus and whispered: "Keep that cannon of yours loaded and be ready to shoot at their limbs they're gonna start popping out of vents, walls, around corners, anywhere. They're like boogeymen, they'll find you no matter where the hell you try to hide."

Nodding, Samus pursed her lips into a thin line, a trail of sweat beading right around her temple through the controlled heat of her visor. She blinked away the moistness of tears and pressed on, keeping close to Isaac, making sure to never fall out of step with him. A din of shrieks and chirps and clicks alerted them to a small team of Slashers near a small resting point. An assortment of rusting vending machines and flickering billboards professing the greatness of the planet-cracking ship greeted them . . . as well as the Slashers lunging towards them, bladed limbs flashing at the corner of Samus's eye.

It was an intensely sore sight for Isaac's viscera, seeing Samus being knocked back forcefully off of her feet, back pressed into the metal grating, her metallic grunts issuing out faintly over her heavy breathing. Seeing her struggle to kick off the swiping angry blades of her assailant. Loading up his plasma cutter, Isaac quickly shot out a beam of blue light that jettisoned out of his powerful engineering tool. Smoke issued out of the newly blasted off right arm of his companion's attacker.

"Ah . . . fuck!"

Samus swore just as a powerful ball of energy—molecular, heated, and full of plasma energy ruptured the sinewy muscles and nerve endings of the necromorph's right leg. Two more shots from Isaac's plasma cutter had quickly made work of it. The last two necromorphs were braver, clicking their maws inches from Samus's face, insulting her, mocking her, their fetid breath and sticky saliva spelling out a toxic death warrant for her, their soulless blood-crusted eyes speaking of the painfulness that they had suffered as humans, speaking of something deeper than just . . . something. Whatever it was it was something that neither Samus or Isaac cared to identify but at one point, she reminded herself, these beings trying to kill her had been humans, they had probably had nieces, nephews, and children, and they might have been mothers and fathers, teachers and firefighters and engineers . . . like Isaac . . . like . . .

Trying not to hesitate out of fear, Samus rolled into a ball, cocooning herself into a shield of orange and yellow plated armor, sweating and concentrating on getting across the room. She felt a dull edged blade rend into her armor, cutting into electrical circuiting, swiping into her skin. A blood curdling scream threatened to rise up out of her throat, the unbearable pain overtaking her until a flood of endorphins were released into her bloodstream. Her vision became fuzzy as she struggled to not focus on the tearing of her flesh, the sight of blood pooling around her vicious wound, she struggled to move her leg only to be pressed down by the none too gentle hand of Isaac. She was instead forced to watch him in a dazed sort of trance between pain and fucked up euphoria as he battered in the arms and legs of the two attackers, imagining how tired and drained he must have been.

Everything was strength and violence about him in that moment. He never cringed as the blood splattered across the front of his suit as he put all of his weight into his left leg and stomped the faces of his attackers in brutally. He didn't break his intense concentration as he wiped the remained of entrails, intestines, rotting flesh, and rank blood from his suit unto a greasy handkerchief he'd snatched up from the resting station. He went to one of the benches and watched as the light flickered overhead, listening to the whimpering and ragged breathing of his wounded companion. It was funny how in the space of an hour or so, Samus had gone from a stranger to a strange companion. He could have easily left her for dead but here he was ensuring that her life was not in any terrible danger, that she would be properly cared for, and maintained. His RIG gleamed a bright blue, his blood pressure and heart rate normalizing to stabilized levels as the adrenaline rush pined away out of his system.

He upgraded his suit to a level two, enhancing it with stronger armory and adding a RIG bar to his health, increasing the speed so that his health meter and vital signs would show up at a more convenient rate. After purchasing an upgrade so that his trust plasma cutter could hold more ammunition and holding off on buying the ever so tempting C99 Supercollider Contact Beam, Isaac stepped away from the workbench and scavenged around for some medical packs. Samus was losing blood quickly from the deep wound in her leg, if he could at least find some damn materials to fashion a simple tourniquet and stitch up the wound to stop the constant flow of blood . . . at least . . .

To be condemned to death on this ship alone, to have the weight of Zach and Kendra's dependence on only his shoulders was maddening. He needed this enigmatic woman, he needed to have her to at least have some shred of a chance of survival. Glancing at the milky whiteness of Samus's face, Isaac noted that her breathing had become more faint overtime. He glanced at her suit, peering at the vital signs that had scrolled across her visor in holographic greenness.

She was in critical condition and her heart rate was dropping at an alarming rate, there was a decreased amount of oxygen supply. Realizing that he had enough credits to at least purchase a basic engineering RIG suit for her, Isaac stepped up to the automated workbench and thanked God as soon as the light flickered on overhead.

In the distance Samus could barely make out the distorted sound of a shriek from around the corner.

"Hu—hurry . . . I—I'm not dyin' on this fuckin' sh-sh-ship," she cursed.

Isaac grimaced and glanced back at her, frowning at the bluish patches of discoloration in her skin. He had to save her . . . he fucking had to. His life was slowly depending on it.


End file.
